Sharing user distributed search results

ABSTRACT

A universal distributed search system allows users to find and distribute search results (possibly including advertisements) to those with whom they communicate. The search results can be easily distributed by the user via a simple interface that allows the search results to be easily added to the user&#39;s content. Search queries entered by the user or search results received from search components may be automatically refined by the system.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 based on U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/774,198, filed Feb. 17, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This application is also a continuation-in-part (CIP) under 37 C.F.R. §1.53(b) of application Ser. No. 10/366,466, filed Mar. 3, 2006, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

A. Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates generally to content creation, and more specifically, to the enhancement of user created content with search results.

B. Description of the Related Art

In an increasingly networked world, users frequently use online sources to create and exchange information. Email, instant messaging (IM), message boards, websites, and blogs are all existing communication technologies through which users can create and distribute content to other users. Frequently, in creating such content, a user may wish to reference other online information sources. For example, a user authoring an email may use a browser to navigate to a web page that the user would like to reference in the email, copy the link (e.g., the uniform resource locator (URL)) from the browser to a “clipboard,” and then paste the link from the clipboard into the email. In this manner, the user can create an email message that contains links that are accessible by an eventual reader of the email.

Search engines are a popular tool through which users enter a search query describing information of interest and receive back documents or links to documents that relate to the search query. Frequently, when “researching” content for an email message, IM message, message board post, website post, or blog post, the user may perform one or more searches using one or more search engines to locate online documents relevant to the content. The user may then copy a link into the document using the above-described method of copying and pasting a link to the document. This process for annotating user created content can be tedious, difficult to perform for average users, and often results in textual links in the final content that can be difficult to read.

Accordingly, it would be desirable to improve the above-described content creation process.

SUMMARY

In one aspect, a content creation application includes a first interface configured to facilitate composition of a message by a user and a second interface configured to receive a search query. The content creation application additionally includes logic to automatically refine a search query. The content creation application additionally includes logic to display search results relating to the search query, and to receive selections of the search results from the user, the content creation application automatically incorporating, in response to the selections, the selected ones of the search results into the message in the first interface.

In another aspect, a content creation application includes a first interface configured to facilitate composition of a message by a user and a second interface configured to receive a search query. The content creation application additionally includes logic to receive search results based on the search query; and logic to automatically refine the received search results. The content creation application additionally includes logic to display the refined search results, and to receive selections of the refined search results from the user, the content creation application automatically incorporating, in response to the selections, the selected ones of the search results into the message in the first interface.

In yet another aspect, a method includes providing an interface configured to facilitate composition of text by a user; receiving a search query from the user; automatically refining the search query from the user; initiating a search based on the refined search query; receiving results of the search; displaying the results of the search in the interface, the displayed results of the search each including a selection object; receiving selections of the selection objects from the user; and associating the results of the search that correspond to the selected ones of the selection objects with the text in the interface.

In yet another aspect, a method includes providing an interface configured to facilitate composition of text by a user; receiving a search query from the user; initiating a search based on the search query; receiving results of the search; automatically refining the results of the search; displaying the results of the search in the interface, the displayed results of the search each including a selection object; receiving selections of the selection objects from the user; and associating the results of the search that correspond to the selected ones of the selection objects with the text in the interface.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, explain the invention. In the drawings,

FIGS. 1A-1C are diagrams providing a conceptual overview of concepts relating to user distributed search results;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an exemplary system in which concepts consistent with the principles of the invention may be implemented;

FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram of a client or server illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary operations consistent with user distributed search;

FIG. 5 is a diagram of an exemplary email interface;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary email message that was annotated to include a search result from a local search engine;

FIG. 7 is an exemplary interface illustrating application of user distributed search to a message board environment;

FIG. 8 is an exemplary interface illustrating application of user distributed search to an instant messaging conversation;

FIG. 9 is an exemplary interface illustrating application of user distributed search to a blog authoring tool;

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating exemplary components in a user distributed search system;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating additional exemplary operations consistent with user distributed search; and

FIG. 12 is an exemplary interface illustrating application of user distributed search in which search results are automatically obtained;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating additional exemplary operations consistent with user distributed search;

FIG. 14 is an exemplary email interface illustrating refinement of search queries; and

FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating additional exemplary operations consistent with user distributed search.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The detailed description does not limit the invention.

Overview

Implementations consistent with the principles of the invention relate to allowing users to distribute search results (possibly including advertisements) to those with whom they communicate. The search results can be easily distributed by the user via a simple interface that allows the search results to be added to the user's content with a single mouse click (or other intuitive gestures or commands). In some implementations, the search results may be automatically formatted when being included into the user's content to create a high quality link within the content.

FIGS. 1A-1C are diagrams providing a conceptual overview of concepts described herein. In this example, assume that a user (“Arthur”) is responding to an email from a friend (“Mark”) requesting information about a camera lens. FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating an exemplary email 110 in which Arthur responds with a short text message informing Mark that the lens he was telling Mark about is the “100 mm F 2.8.” Email 110 exemplifies a typical user email responding to a question. FIG. 1B is a diagram illustrating an another exemplary email, labeled as email 120, in which Arthur responds with the same message informing Mark of the lens about which he was telling Mark. Additionally, in email 120, Arthur pastes a link 125 into email 120 that references a review of the lens. As can be seem by the text of link 125, link 125 is a textually long link that contains a number of terms that convey little information and are probably meaningless to Mark. Email 120 exemplifies a another typical user email responding to a question.

FIG. 1C is a diagram illustrating an exemplary email 130 in which Arthur responds to Mark's email using tools described herein. In contrast to emails 110 and 120, email 130 may include, in addition to the same textual response 135 from Arthur to Mark, a number of links and/or content 140 that were inserted by Arthur when creating the email. Links/content 140 may be information that was automatically generated by the email program used by Arthur in response to Arthur entering a search query such as “Canon100 mm macro lens.” As shown, links/content 140 include two images 141, two links 142 returned from a general web search engine, an advertisement 143 returned from an advertisement search engine, and a link 144 to a local company that was generated in response to a search performed by a local search engine. Arthur may have chosen to use each of links/content 140 by, for example, a single mouse click on a graphical button associated with each of the results of the search query.

As can be appreciated from FIGS. 1A-1C, the workflow illustrated by emails 110 and 120 is sub-optimal for both the reader and the email author. In contrast, email 130 (FIG. 1C) would likely be considered a “higher fidelity” communication than either email 110 or 120. Email 130 includes a number of links to documents that are themselves easily read and that were explicitly selected by the author of the email.

System Overview

FIG. 2 is a diagram of an exemplary system 200 in which concepts consistent with the principles of the invention may be implemented. System 200 may include multiple clients 210 that can connect to servers, such as servers 220-A, 220-B or 230, via a network 240. Network 240 may include a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a telephone network, such as the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), an intranet, the Internet, or a combination of networks. Two clients 210 and three servers 220-A, 220-B and 230 are illustrated as connected to network 240 for simplicity. In practice, there may be more clients and/or servers. Also, in some instances, a client may perform one or more functions of a server and a server may perform one or more functions of a client.

A client 210 may include a device, such as a personal computer, a lap top computer, a wireless telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or another type of computation or communication device. Users of clients 210 may access or receive information from servers 220-A, 220-B or 230.

Clients 210 may include software, such as a web browser 215, for interacting with network 240. Browser programs are well known and are widely available in the art. When browsers or browser programs are discussed herein, these terms are intended to refer to any program that allows a user to browse documents (e.g., web documents), regardless of whether the browser program is a stand alone program or an embedded program, such as a browser program included as part of an operating system.

Clients 210 may also include a local content creation component 218. Local content creation component 218 may include one or more software applications designed to assist the user in generating content. For example, in the context of email, local content creation component 218 may include an email application for composing, sending, and reading email. In the context of instant messaging, local content creation component 218 may include a client IM program for composing, sending, and reading instant messages. In alternate implementations, local content creation component 218 may be embodied as other content creation applications, such as applications designed to assist users in creating blog posts, designing or editing web sites, or posting to message boards.

In some situations, users of clients 210 may create content using networked applications using server 230 in place of or as a supplement to using local content creation components 218. More particularly, server 230 may include content creation component 235, which may provide content creation services to clients 210. For example, server 230 may provide email services to clients 210, such as by providing a web interface through which users of clients 210 can compose, send, and read email messages using browsers 215. In the context of instant messaging, content creation component 235 may be a server side portion of the IM application and may interact with a client-side IM application embodied by local content creation component 218. In alternate implementations, content creation component 235 may be embodied as other network-based content creation applications, such as applications designed to assist users in creating blog posts, designing or editing web sites, or posting to message boards.

In the implementation shown, servers 220-A and 220-B may generally provide network services, such as search services, to clients 210 or to server 230 via network service components 225-A and 225-B. For example, network service component 225-A may include a search engine designed to index documents, such as web pages, connected to network 240. In this implementation, in response to search queries received from clients or other servers in system 200, network service component 225-A may return links to documents determined by network service component 225-A to be relevant to the search query. Network service components 225, as well as being general web search engines, may be specialized web search engines, such as, for example, search engines that return general web search results, image search results, video search results, local search results, geographic search results, product search results, listing search results, email search results, blog search results, message group search results, news search results, digitized content search results, local network search results (e.g. desktop search or corporate network search), or advertisements. The operation of search engines are known in the art and will not be described further herein. Additionally, in some implementations, the search results may include a history of previous search results viewed by the user. In other words, a user may select to see a history of his/her search results.

In some implementations, one or more of network service components 225 may provide advertisements. For example, assume that network service component 225-B of server 220-B is an advertisement server. Server 220-B may receive requests from other servers or from clients for advertisements. The advertisements returned by server 220-B to the requesting server or client may be advertisements that are relevant to a search query, document, or other data.

Although illustrated as single devices in FIG. 2, each of servers 220-A, 220-B and 230 may be implemented as, for example, a single computing device or as multiple distributed computing devices. Also, in some implementations, the functionality of multiple servers, such as servers 220-B and 230, may be combined as a single server or a single group of distributed computing devices.

Exemplary Computing Device Architecture

FIG. 3 is an exemplary diagram of a computing device 300, such as one of clients 210 or servers 220 or 230. Computing device 300 may include a bus 310, a processor 320, a main memory 330, a read only memory (ROM) 340, a storage device 350, an input device 360, an output device 370, and a communication interface 380. Bus 310 may include a path that permits communication among the components of computing device 300.

Processor 320 may include any type of processor, microprocessor, or processing logic that interprets and executes instructions. Main memory 330 may include a random access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device that may store information and instructions for execution by processor 320. ROM 340 may include a ROM device or another type of static storage device that may store static information and instructions for use by processor 320. Storage device 350 may include a magnetic and/or optical recording medium and its corresponding drive.

Input device 360 may include a mechanism that permits a user to input information to computing device 300, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, voice recognition and/or biometric mechanisms, etc. Output device 370 may include a conventional mechanism that outputs information to the user, including a display, a printer, a speaker, etc. Communication interface 380 may include any transceiver-like mechanism that enables computing device 300 to communicate with other devices and/or systems. For example, communication interface 380 may include mechanisms for communicating with another device or system via a network, such as network 240.

Network service components 225 and content creation component 235 in servers 220-A, 220-B and 230, respectively, may be implemented in software and stored in a computer-readable medium, such as memory 330. A computer-readable medium may be defined as one or more physical or logical memory devices and/or carrier waves.

The software instructions defining network service components 225 and content creation component 235 may be read into memory 330 from another computer-readable medium, such as data storage device 350, or from another device via communication interface 380. The software instructions contained in memory 330 cause processor 320 to perform processes that will be described later. Alternatively, hardwired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instructions to implement processes consistent with the present invention. Thus, implementations consistent with the principles of the invention are not limited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

User Distributed Search Results

Consistent with an aspect of the invention, users generating content, such as content created with one or both of content creation component 235 or local content creation component 218, may easily incorporate search results and/or advertisements into their content creation workflow. Incorporation of search results and/or advertisements in the manner described herein will be referred to as user distributed search (UDS).

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating exemplary operations consistent with UDS. A user may begin by opening a content creation application for the type of content that the user desires to create (act 401). For the exemplary operations shown in FIG. 4, assume that the user is composing an email using a web-based email application. That is, assume content creation component 235 provides web-based email services to the user via a browser 215.

Content creation component 235 may provide a graphical interface that includes a UDS section (act 402). FIG. 5 is a diagram of an exemplary email interface 500. Email interface 500 may include fields such as “To:” field 502, “Subject:” field 504, and message field 506 in which the user may compose an email message in a typical manner. Additionally, in this implementation, interface 500 includes a UDS sidebar 510. In some implementations, UDS sidebar 510 may be presented as a graphical window, toolbar, or other element of interface 500 that the user can selectably display or hide from view. As shown, UDS sidebar 510 includes a search query field 520 and a number of search result sections 522-528. In this example, search result sections 522-528 include: image result section 522, local search result section 524, general web search result section 526, and advertisement result section 528. A selectable graphical button, such as arrows 530 may allow the user to hide or view each of search result sections 522-528. As shown, results in local search result section 524 (“local results”) are hidden while search result sections 522, 526, and 528 are selected to show search results. In some implementations, the user of the email application may be able to customize which of the search results sections are shown in UDS sidebar 510.

The user may, at some point while composing the email, enter a search query into search query field 520 (act 403). In some implementations, instead of the user manually entering a search, search queries may be automatically generated and/or executed, such as by generating search queries based on content entered by the user, or semi-automatically generated and/or executed, such as by allowing searches to be performed when a user “hovers” over a word or selection with a graphical pointing device (act 403). In response, content creation component 235 may transmit the search query to each of the appropriate network service components 235. In this example, content creation component 235 may transmit the search query to three network service components 235, respectively implementing an image search engine, a local web search engine, and a general web search engine. Content creation component 235 may also transmit the search query to another network search component 235 that implements an advertisement server. The search results returned from each of these four “search objects” may then be shown to the user (act 404). In some implementations, the user may select one of the search results to view the underlying document in a separate browser window.

As illustrated in the example of FIG. 5, the user entered the search query “Canon Macro Lens” into search query field 520. The returned search results include a number of images 540 related to this search, a number of relevant web sites 542 related to the search, and an advertisement 544 related to the search. Each of the returned search results may include a link or other graphical selection object that allows the user to select the search result for inclusion in to the message being composed. In this implementation, a “save” link 550 is shown below each of the search results.

The user may decide to include one or more of the search results in the email (act 405). The user may do so by simply selecting the appropriate save link 550, which causes content creation component 235 to copy the corresponding search result into the email. In response, content creation component 235 may write the selected results to the email, such as to the message field 506 of the email (act 406). As shown, in this example, the user has selected two images 560, two general web results 561, an advertisement 562, and a local search result 563, for inclusion in the email being composed. In one implementation, the results may be automatically placed below message field 506 in the email. In other implementations, content creation component 235 may allow the user to control the placement of the results in the email, such as by graphically dragging different results to different positions in the email. For example, a user may, by dragging a search result over an image or other portion of text, cause the image or other portion of text to become anchor text for the link that refers to the search results. Content creation component 235 may allow the user to implement other editorial controls, such as providing the user with the ability to annotate search results or to add an indication of the search query that was used to generate the search result.

In some implementations, in addition to content creation component 235 writing the selected results to the email, the content creation component may additionally copy the selected results to other locations, such as an operating system's “clipboard.” Whether results are also copied to the clipboard may be a user selectable option. The user may then, if desired, paste the results into other applications.

The user may continue to edit the content, enter or refine search queries, and select results for the content until the user is ready to send or post the content (acts 407 and 408). In the example, of FIG. 5, the user may enter a “send email” command when the user is ready to send the email. The email, when received by the recipient, may appear as email 130 (FIG. 1C). The recipient of the email may be able to conveniently view the web pages corresponding to the links by selecting the links. The links underlying the image search results, in particular, may take the user to the web page at which the image is hosted.

As can be seen from FIG. 5, the selected results 560-563, in contrast to links that are typically pasted into emails between users, such as link 125 (FIG. 1B), are formatted in a visually appealing manner and thus provide a higher quality content than typical links that a user would normally paste into content (e.g., such as link 125 of FIG. 1B). More specifically, the links relating to the search results may, as shown in FIGS. 1C and 5, include the actual link to the search result, a short snippet of text that may be selected based on terms in the search query, and the domain corresponding to the returned result. Additionally, the user may select chosen results via a simple process, such as by a single mouse click on a link 550 or by a “drag and drop” selection operation associated with link 550, thus providing even relatively unsophisticated computer users with the ability to enhance their content with search results.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary email message that was annotated using UDS to include a search result to a local search engine. In this example, email message 600 is an email message relating to a book club meeting. The sender of the email message is informing the other members of the book club that the meeting location has changed to a local restaurant (“Café Del Sol.”) To support this message, the sender has added two search results from a local search engine. The first, result 602, refers to a web page that discusses the restaurant. The second, result 604, links to a local search engine result web page 610 that includes a map 615 showing the location of the restaurant. As illustrated in this example, a user can quickly add links to valuable information to an email, such as a link to a map of a location referred to in the email. In some implementations, instead of a search result being a link to a map, the search result may be a map image that is sent inline with the email message, another type of image, an address, a phone number, or a price of a product that is sent inline with the email message.

Advertisements

In some implementations, content creators that place advertisement links in their content may be given some form of credit if the reader of the advertisement selects the advertisement link. The credit can be monetary or take some other form. Because of the high likelihood that an advertisement incorporated by a content creator into their content is relevant and/or likely to be viewed by the reader, a number of different business models are possible. For example, advertisers may be charged a premium or charged based on a different rate scale for advertisements distributed via UDS.

Additional Exemplary Implementations of UDS

The above description of UDS was primarily in the context of sending email content. As previously mentioned, UDS can be applied equally well to other forms of content creation. FIGS. 7-9 illustrate other additional applications of UDS.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary interface illustrating application of UDS to a message board environment. A web message board can generally be defined as a facility on the web for holding discussions. Message boards are typically organized into topics in which users post messages relating to the appropriate topic.

In FIG. 7, an exemplary message board interface 700 is presented to a user, such as an interface presented through a browser 215. As shown in interface 700, a first user has posted a message 710 asking for advice relating to a crank for a bicycle. A second user responds with a message 715. Through UDS, the poster supplements message 715 with a number of search results 720. The search results 720 include images 725 of the cranks under discussion, an advertisement 730 for a bicycle store mentioned in message 715, a link 735 to a web site of the company that produces the cranks, and a link 740 pointing to a local distributor of the cranks. Through UDS, the user responding to message 710 was able to effectively supplement the text of message 715 with links that he specifically selected as being relevant to the topic under discussion.

FIG. 8 is an exemplary interface illustrating application of UDS to an instant messaging conversation. Instant messaging can generally be defined as the act of instantly communicating between two or more people over a network such as the Internet.

In FIG. 8, an exemplary instant messaging interface 800 is presented to a user, such as an interface presented by a local content creation component 218 (e.g., an IM client) executing at a client 210. Instant messaging interface 800 includes a message display portion 810 through which transmitted instant messages are displayed, a messaging area 820 in which users may enter messages that they are going to transmit, and UDS interface 830. In this example, the two participants in the conversation (Mark and Cindy) are discussing possible vineyards to visit. Through UDS, each user has selectively augmented their messages with links relating to the particular vineyard under discussion. In this manner, UDS interface 830 can enhance the quality of the instant messaging conversation by, for example, allowing users to both search from within IM interface 800 and easily share selected links from the search with other users.

FIG. 9 is an exemplary interface illustrating application of UDS to a blog authoring tool. A blog (shortened form of weblog or web log) is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and generally displayed in reverse chronological order.

In FIG. 9, an exemplary interface 900 of a blog authoring tool presented to a user, such as a web based blog authoring tool implemented by content creation component 235 or a locally executed blog authoring tool implemented by local content creation component 218. Interface 900 may include a blog authoring section 910 in which a blogger may enter and edit blog posts. UDS interface 920 allows the blogger to enter search queries and receive search results in a manner similar to UDS sidebar 510 (FIG. 5). Search results selected by the blogger may be displayed in result section 930 of interface 900. When the blogger is ready to publish the post, “publish post” button 940 may cause the text entered by the blogger in section 910 and the search results selected by the blogger in result section 930 to both be published as a single blog post to the blogger's blog.

Additional Details of an Exemplary Implementation of the UDS

It can be recognized that the UDS described above can be implemented using a number of different programming and hardware technologies. A high-level description of one exemplary implementation will now be given.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating exemplary components in a UDS system. As shown in FIG. 10, a client 210 communicates with UDS engine 1037 at application server 230, which may in turn communicate with search services 1040-A through 1040-N at one or more servers 220. In this implementation, portions of the content application, such as an email application, may be a web-based application that is transmitted to browser 215 on an on-demand basis. At browser 215, the email application may include, for example, a JavaScript object 1016 that interfaces with a user interface portion 1017 to provide the final user interface that is displayed in browser 215 based on, for example, HTML (hyper-text markup language) and CSS (cascading style sheets) data supplied from JavaScript application 1016.

User interface portion 1017 and JavaScript object 1016 together act to reduce the start-stop start-stop nature of traditional browser-based web applications, as JavaScript object 1016 adds a client-side layer that can handle many of the user interactions with user interface portion 1017. Instead of loading a web page at the start of a user session, browser 215 may load JavaScript application 1016 from server 230 (or, alternatively, from a local cache). JavaScript object 1016 may be responsible for both rendering the interface the user sees and communicating with content creation component of server 230 on the user's behalf.

JavaScript object 1016 may be a dynamically configured object that allows for dynamic selection of which network services, such as which search services 1040, to use. JavaScript object 1016 may implement a number of different functions at client 210. For example, JavaScript object 1016 may allow the interface to be positioned where desired in the client display. Additionally, JavaScript object 1016 may implement a search control object that limits search results to a small number of highly relevant results per search. The search control object may annotate each search result with an element that, when clicked, allows the user to save the search result to the content creation interface.

In some implementations, JavaScript object 1016 may be an object that is designed to be easily integrated into existing web-based JavaScript applications, thus providing a convenient application programming interface (API) through which programmers can incorporate UDS into their programs.

UDS engine 1037 may provide an interface with JavaScript object 1016. In response to JavaScript object 1016, UDS interface may annotate search requests, perform searches through appropriate search services 1040-A through 1040-N, and serialize results of the searches. Search services 1040-A through 1040-N may return search results, such as general web-based search results, image results, etc., or return relevant advertisements, in response to requests from UDS engine 1037.

Automated Generation of Search Results

In the UDS described above, search results were primarily described as being obtained based on a search query entered by the user. In alternate implementations, the UDS may automatically generate search queries and perform potential searches using automatically generated search queries.

Referring back to FIG. 4, in act 403, a search query may be entered by a user or automatically generated. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating additional details that may be associated with act 403. In particular, as shown in FIG. 11, a search query may be generated based on a search query received from a user (act 1101) or based on the automatic generation of a search query (acts 1102-1104).

In act 1101, a search query may be received from a user. As previously mentioned, this act may be based on a user typing a search query into a search query field, such as search query field 520. Alternatively, In some implementations, instead of the user typing a search query, the user may select search terms in other ways, such as by “hovering” over a word or selection with a graphical pointing device

Instead of waiting for a user to provide a search query, the UDS may automatically generate search queries based on, for example, entity recognition techniques performed using the content entered by the user or content otherwise associated with content creation application 218/235 (act 1102). Entity recognition techniques are generally known in the art, and may include, for example, techniques designed to recognize entities such as products, places, organizations, or any other entities that tend to be subjects of searches. The entity recognition techniques can be based on linguistic grammar models or statistical models. In one possible implementation, the entity recognition techniques may be particularly adopted to locate terms that correspond to commercial products or terms that define an address, such as a postal address.

If an entity is recognized in act 1102 that is determined to be relevant enough for a search to be executed, the entity may be submitted as a search query to the appropriate network service components 225 (acts 1103 and 1104). In some implementations, if multiple entities are received they may be combined and submitted as a single search query, submitted as multiple separate search queries, or filtered to remove less relevant entities before combining the remaining entities as a search query. In some implementations, the UDS system may only submit the determined entity to certain ones of the network service components 225 based on the type of entity. For example, an address may be submitted to a mapping or local search network service component, while a commercial product may be submitted to a shopping network service component and an advertisement network service component. Referring back to FIG. 4, the returned search results may then be shown in the UDS interface and, as previously described, potentially selected by the user and incorporated into the content being created by the user (acts 405-407).

In some implementations, the entity recognition techniques may additionally take into account context relating to the particular content creation component 218/235 or state of the content creation component 218/235 that is being used by the user. For example, entity recognition techniques applied to a message board content creation component may be biased to look for terms in the content that relate to the topic of the message board. As another example, entity recognition techniques applied to a blog authoring tool may be biased to look for terms in the content that relate to the general topic of the blog (e.g., if the blog is a computer software blog, the entity recognition techniques may be biased to locate terms relating to computer software).

Acts 1102-1104 may be performed in real-time (or near real-time) as the user is typing or otherwise editing content. In this way, potentially relevant search results can be dynamically updated and shown to the user without interrupting the workflow of the user.

FIG. 12 is an exemplary interface 1200 illustrating application of user distributed search in which search results are automatically obtained. Interface 1200 is an email interface that is similar to email interface 500 (FIG. 5). In particular, interface 1200 may include “To:” field 502, “Subject:” field 504, and message field 506 in which the user may compose an email message in a typical manner. Additionally, interface 1200 may include selected search results 560 through 563, as described previously.

In contrast to the example shown in FIG. 5, however, in which UDS sidebar 510 provides user-selectable search results, UDS sidebar 1210 may include multiple sidebars, shown in interface 1200 as an auto-generated results section (sidebar) 1211 and a user-generated results section (sidebar) 1212. User-generated results section 1212 may function similarly to UDS sidebar 510. That is, a user may enter search queries in search box 1220 and view results of the search in one or more search results sections 1222 and 1224.

Auto-generated results section 1211 may include search results that are generated automatically by the UDS (acts 1102-1104). The results may be generated in-real time or in near real-time by the UDS system as the user creates content (e.g., by typing content). Auto-generated results section 1211 may include a search query section 1240, in which the search query that was automatically generated by the UDS (act 1102) is shown, and a search result portion 1245. Search result portion 1245 may include search results for the automatically generated query that is shown in search query section 1240. In this example, search result portion 1245 includes an image result section 1246 and general web search result section 1247. Graphical arrow buttons may allow the user to hide or view each of the search result sections. As shown, results in image result section 1246 (“image results”) are hidden while general web search result section 1247 is selected to show search results.

Whether auto-generated search results section 1211 and/or user-generated search results section 1212 is displayed in interface 1200 may be configurable by the user. In the example of interface 1200, search results sections 1211 and 1212 include “close” buttons 1250 and 1251, respectively, which may operate to remove the respective results sections 1211 or 1212 from the UDS interface. With these buttons, the user may disable auto-generation of search queries.

Search results sections 1211 and 1212, in addition to being closeable by the user, may include an option to allow the search results sections to be detached from interface 1200. In other words, the user may be able to cause search results sections 1211 and 1212 to become a separate window within a graphical interface.

In alternate implementations, instead of presenting an interface to the user that includes multiple sidebars as shown in interface 1200, the UDS may present a single sidebar to the user through which both manually entered search queries and automatically generated search queries are shown to the user. For example, the UDS system may automatically generate search queries and display the results to the user as long as the user does not manually enter a search query. When the user manually enters a search query, the system may refrain from automatically generating further search queries. Also, the user may be able to disable the automated portion of the search generation.

Further, in some alternate implementations, the UDS may automatically generate search queries as described above but may not automatically submit the search queries to network service components 325. Instead, the UDS may, for example, display the search queries in search query section 1240. The user, if interested in the automatically generated search query, may submit it to one or more of the network service components 225.

Refinement of UDS Search Results

With the UDS system described above, search results were presented to the user based on a search query entered by the user or automatically generated based on entity recognition techniques. In alternate implementations, the search results or search queries may be further refined by the UDS system before being shown to the user.

Referring back to FIG. 4, in act 403, a search query may be entered by a user or automatically generated. In response, content creation component 235 may transmit the search query to each of the appropriate network service components 235 and the search results returned from each of the network service components may then be shown to the user (act 404).

FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating additional exemplary operations that may be associated with act 404. The search query obtained in act 403 may be refined by the UDS system (act 1302). In general, the UDS may refine the search query by modifying the search query with the goal of increasing the relevancy of the search results. Refining a search query does not necessarily imply that the search query is narrowed to return fewer search results; in some situations, a refined search query may return more search results than the original search query. In one implementation, the search query may be refined to include additional information relating to the particular type of content creation application 218/235. For instance, if content creation application 218/235 is an application designed to facilitate posts to a message board, content creation application 218/235 may automatically add terms to the search query that relate to the topic of the message board. When a user is adding a post to the message board “rec.bicycles.tech,” for example, the UDS system may modify user entered UDS search queries (or automatically generated UDS search queries) to include terms relating to the message board, such as by adding the terms “bicycle” or “gear,” etc. In some implementations, whether the UDS system adds terms to refine a search query may be based on the specificity of the received search query. For example, if the received search query contains many terms or if it contains terms that are relatively uncommon, the UDS may refrain from additionally narrowing the search query, while a search query that is determined by the UDS to be particularly broad may be refined.

In addition to refining search queries to include additional information relating to the particular type of content creation application 218/235, search queries may be refined based on particular users of the content creation application 218/235 or based on users to whom messages are addressed that are created with content creation application 218/235 (act 1302).

As an example of refining search queries based on the users of the content creation application 218/235 or based on users to whom messages are addressed, consider the exemplary email message illustrated in FIG. 14. In email message 1400, the sender of the email message is informing the recipient of the email of a local restaurant (“Café Del Sol”) at which they are to meet. To support this message, the sender has added search results 1460 from a local search engine that were selected from local results 1445. In implementations consistent with aspects of the invention, the search results may be based on search queries that were automatically refined to include references to the locations of the sender of the email message or the recipient of the email message. For example, local search result 1461 may link to a local search engine result web page that includes a map showing the location of the restaurant relative to the location of the recipient of the email message. The location of the email recipient may be known from information entered by the recipient when signing up for an email account if the recipient of the email message is using the same email platform as the sender. As another example, local search results 1445 may include search results based on multiple local searches, such as a local search refined based on the sender's location and a local search refined based on the recipient's location.

As another example of refining search queries based on the users of content creation application 218/235, the UDS system may generate an explicit or implicit profile of the user and use the profile when refining the search results. The profile may be based on, for example, past searches by the user or explicit profile or preference information entered by the user.

As yet another example of refining search queries, the UDS system may refine search queries by modifying individual terms within the search queries, such as by adding synonyms of terms already in the search query, by stemming terms already in the search query, or by substituting or suggesting spelling corrections to terms in the search query.

The search query refined in act 1302 may be submitted to the appropriate network service components (act 1303). The search results received back from the network search components may then be presented to the user (acts 1304 and 1305). Certain of these search results, such as search results 1445, for example, may be selected by the user and included in the document, as previously described.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart illustrating additional exemplary operations that may be associated with act 404 consistent with an alternative embodiment. The search query obtained in act 403 may be submitted to the appropriate network service components 225 by content creation component 218/235 (act 1502). The search results may be received by content creation component 218/235 (act 1503). The received search results may be refined by content creation component 218/235 by, for example, ranking the search results or filtering the search results (act 1504). This refinement may be performed with the goal of increasing the relevancy of the search results presented to the user. In general, refining search results will refer to modifying or reevaluating the relevance order of the search results. Typically, search results that are higher in the relevance order are the results that are presented to the user first or presented most prominently to the user.

In one implementation, additional information relating to the particular type of content creation application 218/235 may be used to refine the search results. For instance, if content creation component 218/235 is an application designed to facilitate posts to a message board and the particular message board being posted-to is the message board “rec.bicycles.tech,” content creation application 235 may refine the search results by ranking the results to emphasize results that are more relevant to bicycles or removing (filtering) results that are not related to bicycles.

In another possible implementation, the search results may be refined based on information relating to the user of content creation application 218/235 or based on information relating to the intended recipients of the content. As an example of this, consider a profile created by or for the user that includes areas of interest of the user. The profile may be used as a basis to re-rank the search results. In other possible implementations, other information, such as, for a message board post, geographic information that is relevant to the message board post, may be used to refine the search results.

The refined search results may then be presented to a user (act 1505).

Additional Concepts

The user selection of search results when creating content may provide an indication that the selected search results are relevant to the search query. For example, the search results selected by a user may be used as part of a reputation network. In general, a reputation network in some way quantifies the reputation or score of users as to their expertise in certain categories or topics. In the context of UDS, if a particular user incorporates a large number of search results into content and the search results are frequently selected by readers of the content, this may be an indication that the user is an “expert” in the topic relating to the content, and his reputation score for the topic may be increased. This application may be particularly relevant to content applications such as message boards, where the message boards are typically categorized by topic.

More generally, regarding reputation, the gesture of selecting a result may be feed back into the system to impact, for example, raw result ranking, raw value of an advertisement, raw reputation of a user performing a selection, or raw reputation of an application using UDS. These raw reputation results can be used, for example, to modify a document or advertisement ranking used by the underlying search engines.

Advertisements presented through UDS may, in particular, represent advertisements that have a higher likelihood of click through and may therefore be more valuable to the advertiser. These advertisements may, for example, cost more than or be provided on different terms than other advertisements. In some implementations, the revenue or other benefit derived from advertisements selected by the content creator may be in some way shared with the content creator. In some situations, the fact that an advertisement is selected by an end user may be used in some way to modify a reputation of the content creator that selected the advertisement.

Additionally, in some implementations, content with search results selected by a user may be additionally automatically modified or supplemented, such as by adding additional links to advertisements or products that are determined to be relevant to the selected search results. As an example of this, consider an advertisement for a merchant included in an email message by the author of the email message. It may be desirable to include an additional advertisement from the merchant in the email, such as an advertisement relating to an offer for free shipping from the merchant. These additional or follow-on advertisements may be displayed within the message itself or as advertisements presented to the user via a different channel. For example, if the recipient of the email message is viewing the email message using a web-based email application, the follow-on advertisement may be displayed outside of the message itself, such as in a portion of the browser that the web-based email application normally uses to present advertisements to its users.

Additionally, in some implementations, the UDS search query field, such as search query field 520 (FIG. 5), instead of causing searches to be executed through network service components (e.g., network search engines), may perform other types of local or network search. For example, the search query may alternatively or additionally be submitted to a local (e.g., a desktop) search service or to a search service integrated in the content creation application. For example, a network email content creation application may include a search service that allows a user to search previously sent or received emails. In this situation, the UDS search query field may additionally use the search services of the content creation application.

CONCLUSION

The foregoing description of exemplary embodiments of the invention provides illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention.

Moreover, while series of acts have been described with regard to FIGS. 4, 11, 13, and 15 the order of the acts may be varied in other implementations consistent with the invention. Moreover, non-dependent acts may be implemented in parallel.

It will also be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that aspects of the invention, as described above, may be implemented in many different forms of software, firmware, and hardware in the implementations illustrated in the figures. The actual software code or specialized control hardware used to implement aspects consistent with the principles of the invention is not limiting of the invention. Thus, the operation and behavior of the aspects of the invention were described without reference to the specific software code—it being understood that one of ordinary skill in the art would be able to design software and control hardware to implement the aspects based on the description herein.

Further, certain portions of the invention may be implemented as “logic” or a “component” that performs one or more functions. This logic may include hardware, such as an application specific integrated circuit or a field programmable gate array, software, or a combination of hardware and software.

No element, act, or instruction used in the description of the invention should be construed as critical or essential to the invention unless explicitly described as such. Also, as used herein, the article “a” is intended to include one or more items. Where only one item is intended, the term “one” or similar language is used. Further, the phrase “based on” is intended to mean “based, at least in part, on” unless explicitly stated otherwise. 

1-28. (canceled)
 29. A method comprising: receiving, by a device, a search query from a first user; providing, by the device, a list of links to documents relevant to the search query for display to the first user; receiving, by the device and from the first user, a selection of a group of links from the list of links; incorporating, by the device and based on the selection, the group of links into a message; providing, by the device, the message to a second user; and adjusting, by the device, a reputation score of the first user based on determining that the second user selected one or more links included in the group of links.
 30. The method of claim 29, where adjusting the reputation score includes: adjusting the reputation score of the first user based on a quantity of links included in the group of links.
 31. The method of claim 29, where adjusting the reputation score includes: adjusting the reputation score of the first user based on a quantity of the one or more links selected by the second user.
 32. The method of claim 29, where adjusting the reputation score includes: increasing the reputation score of the first user, where the reputation score is associated with a topic relating to a content of the message.
 33. The method of claim 29, where the first user selects a link, of the group of links, by graphically dragging the link into the message.
 34. The method of claim 29, further comprising: enabling a link, of the group of links, to be annotated by the first user based on the selection of the group of links.
 35. The method of claim 29, where receiving the search query includes: receiving a selection of one or more words included in the message.
 36. A device comprising: one or more processors to: receive a search query associated with a message composed by a first user; provide, based on the search query, a list of links for display to the first user, each link, in the list of links, pointing to a document relevant to the search query; determine that the first user has selected a group of links from the list of links; incorporate, based on the first user having selected the group of links, the group of links into the message; provide the message to a second user; and modify a reputation score, of the first user, based on determining that the second user selected one or more links included in the group of links.
 37. The device of claim 36, where, when modifying the reputation score, the one or more processors are to: modify the reputation score of the first user based on a quantity of links selected by the first user.
 38. The device of claim 36, where, when modifying the reputation score, the one or more processors are to: modify the reputation score of the first user based on a quantity of the one or more links selected by the second user.
 39. The device of claim 36, where, when modifying the reputation score, the one or more processors are to: modify the reputation score of the first user based on: a quantity of links incorporated into messages composed by the first user, and a frequency at which the links incorporated into the messages are selected by readers of the messages.
 40. The device of claim 36, where the first user selects a link, included in the group of links, by graphically dragging the link from the list of links to the message.
 41. The device of claim 36, where the one or more processors are to: enable the first user to add an indication of the search query to the message.
 42. The device of claim 36, where the first user having selected the group of links impacts a resulting ranking of documents pointed to by the group of links.
 43. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, the instructions comprising: one or more instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, cause the processor to: receive a search query associated with a message composed by a first user; provide, based on the search query, a list of links for display to the first user; determine a selection, made by the first user, of a group of links included in the list of links, the selection causing the group of links to be incorporated into the message; and modify a reputation score, of the first user, based on determining that a second user selected one or more links included in the group of links, the second user being different from the first user.
 44. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 43, where the one or more instructions to adjust the reputation score include: one or more instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: adjust the reputation score of the first user based on a quantity of links included in the group of links selected by the first user.
 45. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 43, where the one or more instructions to adjust the reputation score include: one or more instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: increase the reputation score of the first user based on the second user selecting the one or more links.
 46. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 43, where the one or more instructions to adjust the reputation score include: one or more instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: adjust the reputation score of the first user based on a quantity of links incorporated into messages composed by the first user and a frequency at which the links incorporated into the messages are selected by readers of a content of the messages.
 47. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 43, where the first user selects a link, included in the group of links, by graphically dragging the link from the list of links to the message.
 48. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 43, where the instructions further comprise: one or more instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: enable the first user to one or more of: add an indication of the search query to the message, or annotate the group of links. 